Oral versus injectable antipsychotic treatment in early psychosis: post hoc comparison of two studies.

BACKGROUND: Few studies have compared long-acting injectable second-generation antipsychotics with oral antipsychotics. Long-acting injectable antipsychotics-developed specifically to address the problem of adherence-might have an important role to play in treating early psychosis.

OBJECTIVE: The effects of oral antipsychotics versus risperidone long-acting injection (RLAI) were compared between 2 similar studies lasting 2 years each that were conducted at our site in South Africa.

METHODS: Results of an open-label study in which patients were treated with flexible doses of RLAI were compared with the results of a randomized controlled trial of flexible doses of oral risperidone or haloperidol. Inclusion criteria for both studies were age 16 to 45 years; confirmed diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizophreniform disorder, or schizoaffective disorder;
RESULTS: The RLAI group included 50 patients (32 men and 18 women; mean [SD] age, 25.4 [7.4] years; BMI, 20.6 [4.6] kg/m(2)). The oral risperidone or haloperidol group included 47 patients (27 men and 20 women; mean [SD] age, 25.9 [5.8] years; BMI, 20.1 [3.4] kg/m(2)). Compared with patients treated with oral risperidone or haloperidol, RLAI-treated patients had significantly fewer all-cause discontinuations (26.0% [13/50] vs 70.2% [33/47] at 24 months; P < 0.005), greater reduction on the PANSS total score (-39.7 vs -25.7; P = 0.009), higher remission rate (64.0% [32/50] vs 40.4% [19/47]; P = 0.028), and lower relapse rate (9.3% [4/43] vs 42.1% [16/38]; P = 0.001) among the responders. Extrapyramidal symptoms were significantly lower in the RLAI group than in patients treated with oral risperidone or haloperidol, as measured by the maximum change in the mean [SD] ESRS total score (1.40 [2.60] vs 5.61 [5.21] vs 9.04 [6.21], respectively; P
CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this post hoc analysis suggest that there were advantages in terms of efficacy, fewer extrapyramidal symptoms, and more weight gain with long-acting injectable second-generation antipsychotics as compared with oral antipsychotic treatment in early-episode psychosis.